XVIII — THE POWER OF FAITH

Presence of God. — “I believe, Lord; help my unbelief, increase my faith” (Mk. 9, 23; cf. Lk. 17, 5).

Meditation

1 — Jesus said: “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mk. 9:22). It seems in fact that God cannot resist a full, blind, unconditional faith, and almost considers Himself obliged to grant our supplications. The Gospel tells us this on every page: before performing a miracle Jesus always asked for an act of faith: “Do you believe that I can do this?” (Mt. 9:28). And, when the faith was sincere, at once the prodigy was accomplished: “Take courage, daughter,” He said to the woman with the hemorrhage, “your faith has made you well” (ibid., 9:22). Jesus never says: my omnipotence has saved you, healed you, but your faith, as if to make us understand that faith is the indispensable condition He asks in order to engage his omnipotence for our benefit. He, always omnipotent, does not want to use his omnipotence except in favor of those who firmly believe in Him. Precisely for this reason the divine Master refused in Nazareth the many miracles He worked elsewhere. The more lively our faith is, the more it is omnipotent by God’s very omnipotence. “If you had true faith as a grain of mustard seed,” Jesus affirmed, “you could say to this mountain: move from here to there! and it would move, and nothing would be impossible for you” (Mt. 17:19). As all the Gospel words are true, so these too are true, literally true; if they are not fulfilled for us, it is only because our faith is very weak. How many difficulties we meet in life that for us are true mountains to be moved! Difficulties in spiritual life: defects we cannot conquer, virtuous habits we cannot acquire; difficulties in daily life: lack of means, works and undertakings that exceed our capacity and strength... And we stop discouraged at the foot of these mountains: impossible, I cannot do it! One act of trust would be enough, as much as a grain of mustard seed - which is very small - provided it is living faith, capable of germinating like the mustard seed: living, sure, decided faith, supernatural faith that counts only on God and in his name alone courageously faces any difficulty. Oh, if we could believe like this! “Nothing is impossible to him who believes.”

2 — Although the difficulties we meet on our way can be grave, they can never justify discouragement. We become discouraged because we fold back on our own impotence: on one side the memory of failures already suffered and on the other the sight of situations unequal to our strength that stand before us like insurmountable mountains, crush us, suffocate us, paralyze us. But the soul that has faith in God, that is sure of its God, knows well how to find a way out of these straits and uses its very impotences and difficulties as a springboard to plunge into God with an act of strong and resolute faith.

God sometimes permits very difficult conditions of life whose solution humanly speaking cannot be seen, permits states of true anguish caused by strong trials of spirit, precisely because He wants to urge us to intense exercise of the virtue of faith, an exercise that in certain cases can and must become heroic. If, then, the Lord disposes something similar also for you, be persuaded that He does not do this because He has abandoned you or rejects you from Himself, He does not do it to humiliate or annihilate you, but to render you strong and even heroic in faith. Believe in Him, believe in his helping omnipotence, believe in his word. Perhaps the Lord delays coming to your help precisely because you are not yet capable of formulating a full act of faith. He asks you, as to the two blind men of the Gospel: “Do you believe that I can do this?” (cf. Mt. 9:28), and you still do not know how to answer Him with a strong and decided yes, without uncertainty, without ifs and buts. Yet even if your faith is strong, God could still test it, as Jesus tested the faith of the Canaanite woman. Then you must do as she did: do not give up, do not cease believing, but believe more and more, so that He is constrained to answer you as to that humble woman: “Great is your faith; let it be done to you as you will” (Mt. 15:28).

Colloquy

“Lord and my God, faith in us is so weak that we believe more easily what falls under our eyes than the truths it teaches us, and so, pursuing these sensible things, our misery is all too evident!...

“If, then, grave difficulties intervene, oh, how the evil one takes advantage of them, if only to weaken our faith still more. And not to believe, O Lord, that You are so powerful as to do things above our intelligence is a great harm!

“Blessed are You, O my God! I recognize your sovereign power. You are powerful, oh yes, truly You are. And what is impossible to Him who can do all things? Though so miserable, I firmly believe that your power extends to all that You will. The greater the wonders I hear told of You, the more my faith is strengthened in the thought that You can do greater still. Why marvel at what the Almighty does?” (cf. T.G. M. II, 5; VI, 3, 7; Ex. 4, 2).

“O my God, greater faith is needed not to believe in You than to believe in You! So great is what You show me that I no longer need faith to believe it” (St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).

“My God, You are love and omnipotence; You know all, can all, will all, and guide all for your glory and for our advantage. How much faith I draw from these truths; how much confidence, what rest and what love they communicate to me! I know that, even when You give me nothing palpable, You are always my God and always provide with love for the work of your hands. Therefore I hide myself in You with faith and sustain the assault of the storm with the certainty that, when it pleases You, with your divine omnipotence You will even raise the dead” (cf. Bl. Teresa Soubiran).

“My God, no, the power of your arm has not diminished. If You do not work miracles for me, it is only because my faith is weak. O Lord, help my unbelief, increase my faith!”